10/19/11

Dad is getting to move out of ICU. Woo-hoo! Now, he's not 100%, he still has the stomach infection he's been fighting and his body is very, very weak. He also has some swelling in his arm, last time that happened there was a blood clot, we will have to wait and see. We're just praying him being out of ICU will help - it's depressing in there!

We did get awesome news, his folks from work have donated him vacation through December! AMAZING! Wow, what a blessing, God is good!!!

He'll be on the 2nd floor at Mercy, I'll keep you posted about if he can have visitors.

Thanks for your prayers.

~kj

Our Faith

We are relying on God to get dad through this! That's all we've got - OUR FAITH!

He's still having hallucinations/psychosis, and he repeats himself over and over. He wants to prove to us he knows words and can read and remember things. He didn't pass a swallow test (I act like I know what all this means, but I don't) so they are giving him food in a tube that runs up his nose tonight. It's difficult to see, and we're praying it stops soon. The first day he was humorous, which was good - mom and I needed that good laugh, you know the kind that make you cry! It was good to laugh....but now, we're ready for it to be done. They are saying it should stop, that the meds still haven't metabolized - so we're waiting for that to happen.

Please pray that the doctors will CLEARLY be able to see what the next steps should be for dad. Things seem so murky, like they aren't sure! Just please pray they ARE SURE what needs to be done and they know what steps to take. Please pray for my sweet mom too! We know God is in control of our faithful journey!

So, I don't really think my dad would be very happy with me if I didn't go on to say this...if you're reading this blog and you don't have faith - if you don't know Jesus - if you don't have a peace knowing there is something more than this life, something amazing - then PLEASE reach out to us! Even if you don't know us, that's okay! Our family would love to share our faith with you! We know that even though this is a sad, scary, frustrating, uncertain time for our family - dad's going to be fine! No matter what, he'll be fine! God is good!!!!!!

Peace & Love

~kj

10/12/11

Wow. This has been a day.

First off, most people know that my dad's parents were moved into Tealridge Assisted Living last Monday. Unfortunately, we found out today that Papa really needed to be in the memory care area. So my 2 uncles, their wives, and DJ and I moved them into the memory care area tonight. Tealridge has been really great to work with them. It was challenging and sad for my Nana, but it's the best for Papa - he's safe there and that's what we need. His safety and peace for Nana.

The reason I'm letting you know about the history with Nana & Papa is to also say that they don't really know EVERY detail about my dad right now. {They just left their home town of over 50 years and moved here...we're taking one day at a time with them!} They know he's at Mercy. They know he has a stomach infection and they can't really be around him since their susceptible. That's about all right now - and that's plenty!

So now about dad. Mom showed up at Mercy ICU this morning and there was a hose up dad's nose. My mom started asking questions and found out that he had been unresponsive since last night. They did several tests and scans and did everything they could to figure out what was going on. His brain looked good, no stroke, no bleeding, and no clot from what they could tell. So why is he unresponsive!?!?! (Like I'm meaning can NOT wake up!) This is what they are saying - he was given a dose of pain meds on Tuesday evening for the pain and since his kidneys aren't just working 100% the meds sit in his body and don't process correctly. They are SAYING he should be awake by in the morning. Well, they're saying and we're praying.

So that's our today.

We are firm believers that God's plan is so much better than ours! We (mom, dad and I) have all struggled with control - we like to control situations. We can't control this - what we can do is rely on God to get us through and we can rely on our friends & family to support us and pray with us.

Recent Events...

Sorry I've been bad to post lately.

Here's some recent events

• Dad was moved to a skilled nursing center several weeks ago


• He was very tired but was making some progress, worked with physical therapy and speech therapy


• He walked 15 feet with his walker - awesome!


• Started not feeling great again


• Got an infection


• Got moved back to Mercy


• Trying to get stronger again, he's very weak


• He was too weak to do 2nd chemo treatment, we will have to see if he can when he's strong enough


• We're taking one day at a time!

Dad has asked for no visitors at this time. He's so tired and even though he LOVES seeing people, he can't rest well with people popping in and out. Please keep praying for strength & healing, and pray for mom too she's pretty worn out.

Thank you all for your continued support & prayers.